ROVER

Copyright (c) 1980 Trevor Mendham

Rover is played on the following hexagonal board:

BASES - Each player has a base which is the set of cells where his stones initially are. WALLS - The five solid cells in the center row. TURN - On each turn, each player slides one friendly stone. A stone slides in a straight line over any number of empty cells until it reaches a wall, a board edge or any other stone. The stone stays in the last crossed empty cell (there are no captures, jumps or stacking over other stones). When a stone stops inside the enemy base, it can never move again! However, stones may slide over empty cells inside a base. GOAL - After the first turn, loses the player with his base fully occupied.

An example White started and move a stone until it reached a wall. Black used this first move to position a stone at the central row. The two central cells between walls seem to provide strong positional supports.

According to the consulted Spanish text (no references, sorry), the second player may have an advantage. The first player should prefer open positions while the second should search for closed positions where is easier to explore symmetries and zugzwangs. I wish to thank Julián R. of Madrid for this game information.